Sydney Pollack

Actor, director and producer Sydney Pollack worked consistently in the entertainment industry since the mid-1960s. He produced over 40 films, 21 of which he directed, including the cross-dressing comedy Tootsie and Out of Africa, for which he won an Oscar for Best Director. Pollack died of cancer on May 26, 2008.

After appearing in a number of stage productions in New York, and teaching theater in the late 1950s, Pollack started a career as a TV director, helming episodes of the series The Fugitive and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. He first met life-long friend and frequent collaborator Robert Redford while filming his big screen acting debut in 1962's War Hunt.

His first feature as a director was the 1965 Sidney Poitier film The Slender Thread, followed the next year with This Property Is Condemned, which features a script co-written by Francis Ford Coppola. Other notable films directed by Pollack include They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, Jeremiah Johns, The Way We We, Three Days of the Condor, Absence of Malice, The Firm and The Interpreter.

• Note: The majority of the links in this timeline are to IMDb, which has pop-ups.

• July 1, 1934: Born

• 1965: The Slender Thread

• 1966: This Property Is Condemned

• 1968: The Scalphunters

• 1969: They Shoot Horses Don't They?

• 1969: Castle Keep

• 1972: Jeremiah Johnson

• 1973: The Way We Were

• 1975: Three Days of the Concord

• 1977: Bobby Deerfield

• 1979: The Electric Horseman

• 1981: Absence of Malice

• 1982: Tootsie

• 1985: Out of Africa

• 1990: Havana

• 1992: The Player

• 1992: Husbands and Wives

• 1993: Searching for Bobby Fischer

• 1993: The Firm

• 1995: Sense and Sensibility

• 1995: Sabrina

• 1998: Sliding Doors

• 1998: A Civil Action

• 1998: Will & Grace

• 1999: Eyes Wide Shut

• 1999: Random Hearts

• 1999: The Talented Mr. Ripley

• 2002: Changing Lanes

• 2003: Cold Mountain

• 2005: The Interpreter

• 2005: Sketches of Frank Gehry

• 2007: Michael Clayton

• 2008: The Reader